North Sea Hijack

Quite some time back, I read a review of an interesting-sounding movie called ffolkes, originally released in the UK as North Sea Hijack. I picked up the DVD under the ffolkes title, and not too long ago finally got around to watching it to do a review on here.

Roger Moore plays Rufus ffolkes, ex-military who is now working in counterterrorism and has what seems to be his own private unit. He consults for Lloyd's of London, the big insurance firm that will insure almost anything for a price. In this case, it's North Sea oil platforms, and how to keep these remote locations from being threatened.

Cut to the other side of the North Sea. Esther is a cargo ship that supplies various oil platforms in the North Sea. Kramer (Anthony Perkins) and Harold (Michael Parks) are part of a group of journalists doing a story on the oil rigs, which is how they're boarded on the Esther. Except that these guys aren't journalists; they're terrorists whose intent is to threaten the oil rigs for a huge ransom. They get to the main rig named Jennifer and attach magnetic mines to it, doing the same to Ruth, some miles away and supplied by Jennifer. They then demand a ransom of £25 million, to be paid out equally in five different currencies.

Needless to say, this is a national security issue, and the Prime Minister (Faith Brook) calls in the Admiralty. Admiral Brindsen (James Mason) thinks about getting Lloyd's to pay the ransom, which seems like a lousy idea. Fortunately for Brindsen, Lloyd's had been talking to ffolkes about how to deal with just the sort of threat the two oil platforms now face. ffolkes is called in, and he has a good idea what to do, even though he's not thrilled having to meet the Prime Minister because of his resentment of women.

The idea ffolkes has involves going to the platforms with Brindsen, from where they'll figure out a way to infiltrate the Esther. Meanwhile, back on the boat, the crew is trying to come up with ways to fight the terrorists who have taken over their boat, although their first idea doesn't work at all. One good idea ffolkes has come up with is to create a fake explosion that looks like it has destroyed Ruth: Kramer will see the explosion but won't see that Ruth has not in fact been destroyed; hopefully, it will buy time for ffolkes and Brindsen. Eventually, the ultimate plan is to send Brindsen and ffolkes over to the Esther in a sort of hostage exchange while ffolkes' divers can infiltrate the ship from below. But Kramer doesn't like ffolkes, threatning to bollix the whole operation.

ffolkes is in many ways a standard thriller of the era, although there's a lot to recommend it. Roger Moore was in the middle of his run as James Bond when he made this, but his character is changed to have a personality much different from Bond even if the the thriller aspects seem similar. Where Bond sleeps with women left and right, ffolkes has a thing against women and authority in general because of the way he was raised by some really nasty aunts. The irony, of course, is that the one female member of the Esther crew is going to wind up helping ffolkes at a key point in the climax.

The story of ffolkes works quite well, even if again there's not anything groundbreaking here. Moore, having played Bond, is able to do ffolkes easily, while Perkins is excellent as the head of the bad guys. James Mason's role is a supporting one, but he lends the appropriate gravitas to it. The rest of the supporting cast does just fine, and the twists and turns of the plot are more then entertaining.

So if you want another movie you can sit back and watch with a bowl of popcorn, ffolkes is one that definitely fits the bill.

Not as insane as in The Deer Hunter

Another of the movies that I had the chance to DVR during one of the free preview weekends is The Dogs of War. It's going to be on again, tomorrow afternoon at 4:32 PM on ActionMax (part of the Cinemax package if you have it).

Christopher Walken plays, Jamie Shannon, a mercenary as we can see in an introductory scene set somewhere in Central America. He's able to make a hasty escape and get back to New York. Somehow, people know how to get in touch with mercenaries underground, because British businessman Endean is able to find Shannon with another job proposal.

This on, however, doesn't seem to involve any actual fighting. Instead, Endean tells Shannon about an African company called Zangaro. Valuable mineral deposits have been found there, but because of the dictator Kimba, getting at those minerals is going to be a risky proposition. Endean would like somebody more pliant in office, and wants Shannon to determine whether a coup d'état would be a viable proposition.

Shannon reluctantly accepts the job, ultimately deciding that the way to get around the regulations is to be on a false passport pretending to be a nature photographer. It seems interesting that he was worried about bringing that camera to Zangaro as when he gets there one of the first westerners he meets is the journalist North (Colin Blakely). North is nosy, however, and suspects that Shannon isn't telling the truth about being a nature photographer.

Of course, we know that North is right in his suspicions, as Shannon goes out with Evelyn, a woman he meets who happens to be one of Kimba's mistresses. Shannon takes photographs of Evelyn in front of a military garrison, which is obviously part of military reconnaissance, and the authorities get that Shannon has done something terribly illegal. So they arrest him and have him tortured in prison, which is where he meets Dr. Okoye. Okoye was an independence advocate during the colonial era, but lost the presidential election to Kimba, who had Okoye arrested.

Eventually Shannon is deported back to the States. When Endean gets in touch with him, Shannon says that there's no chance of a coup working at this time. Not the news that Endean wanted to hear, especially since Endean is friendly with Col. Bobi, another freedom fighter who went into exile after Kimba became a dictator. Endean and Bobi are impatient for that coup to happen and need Shannon's logistical support. So the coup planning goes on....

As I watched The Dogs of War, for some reason I couldn't help but think of Walken's earlier performance in The Deer Hunter, where he goes to fight in the Vietnam War more out of a sense of adventure than anything. Shannon's motivations for being a mercenary are never really explained; I have no idea if the Frederick Forsyth book on which the movie is based goes into that. Not that it's particularly important for the film to do so.

As a story, The Dogs of War mostly works, although viewers looking for an action movie may want to know that this is a more meticulous movie with the real action confined to the last 20 minutes or so. I had no problem with that, but some people might. Walken dominates and does quite well in doing so. The politics of mercenaries and interfering in the third world are largely avoided, which I think is to the movie's benefit.

I found The Dogs of War to be quite worth a watch. It seems to be out of print on DVD, which is a big shame.